Ooooops. I accidentally linked my Day 1 page to the main site for the challenge. To find my Home Page and the links to all 31 posts, click HERE. Thanks.
Worship: it’s the door to peace, power, and pleasures for evermore. Jonah found worship to be his most powerful help in getting back into God’s grace. When he’d deliberately disobeyed the Lord and ended up in the belly of a big fish at the bottom of the sea, he came to his senses and realized how foolish he’d been. When he looked around, everything he saw told him there was no hope for rescue– or any kind of future. But he knew that there was still a God who wanted to save him. So he turned his attention away from his circumstances and away from his own disobedience. Instead, he focused on his God and began worshiping Him. Shortly thereafter, he was cast out of the fish onto dry land, and he got a second chance to live the successful life God has always wanted for him.
Habakkuk found that worship was his most power friend when he looked all around and found that the trees weren’t bearing fruit, the flock weren’t bearing offspring, and everything looked like there was no hope for the land of Israel. But, knowing that salvation from all that looked hopeless lay in His God – and that what God’s Word said was more real and more reliable than what he saw in the natural – He worshiped God and called for the rest of the nation to do the same – knowing that as they worshiped, they were releasing God’s hand to bring life and productiveness back into their situation.
And talk about power in worship: let’s not forget Paul and Silas, in the depths of a Philistine prison, who decided that nothing in their circumstances could outweigh the loveliness and the faithfulness of their God. As they chose to worship Him, rather than bemoan their current, temporary physical situation, the power of God moved with such force that it broke up the earth and the building where they were being held captive. And not only were they set free – but the jailer and his family were liberated from their hell-bound lives into a blessed relationship with God for eternity.
Eternity is what it’s really all about. God wants us to have blessed lives while we’re on this earth, but He’s even more concerned that we have the blessing of living and creating with Him for all of eternity – enjoying the priceless, indescribable pleasures that we find in His presence. Psalm 16:11 tells us, “ … in Thy presence is fullness of joy. At Thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore.” Worship heads us in the right direction for eternity. But while we’re here on the earth preparing for that eternity, as we worship Him, God says (Psalm 22:3) that He will literally inhabit our praises. And were He is, we’ll experience peace, power, and pleasures forevermore.
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“I am my Beloved’s, and His desire is toward me” 
This week I’m thankful for my NEW ROOF. Yes indeedy! The old one was down to the bare wood on one side. Thanks to God’s protection, it had not started leaking into the house, but I’m so glad to have the new one. 
Is it dark and dreary and hard to see where you’re going?
I’m ashamed to say it, but it’s paper products. I tend to use things like paper tower, toilet paper, and kleenex rather freely. I do try to always buy the paper towel that lets you use half sheets if you don’t need whole sheets. That helps. But to counter that savings, I’ve begun eating off paper plates and out of paper bowls a lot lately as well. I don’t have a dishwasher, and just knowing that disposable dishes will keep my dishwashing down to just a couple times a week is a plus for me. I have several jobs (associate pastor, writer, editor, teacher — both college classes and private classes). So housework of any kind gets put way down on my list. Anything that saves me time and energy in that capacity may lead to my being rather extravagant.
